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After all the hard work Danny Ainge did to get this franchise back to where we are....All it took was that POS Chris Wallace (the man who gave us Vin Baker,Kedrick Brown,etc.) absolutely GIVING Pau Gasol to the Lakers....and NOW we are most likely looking at Banner 15 and more for our most hated rival....Thanks Chris!

I'm pretty sure Pitino hired Wallace on advice from Pat Reilly---one of the biggest Celtic Haters of all time....Jerry West probably had something to do with it too.

Pfft, Celts and the Pistons could beat the Lakers in a 7 game series. KG would dominate Gasol

Bowen has clearly lost a step. He's not the same lock down defender he once was. I would take Prince and Pierce's D on Kobe over Bowen.

Pierce has been surprisingly good defensively in the first two games. I don't ever remember him working so hard on D.

bstein14 wrote:Bowen has clearly lost a step. He's not the same lock down defender he once was. I would take Prince and Pierce's D on Kobe over Bowen.

Pierce has been surprisingly good defensively in the first two games. I don't ever remember him working so hard on D.

Bowen has not lost a step. It is Duncan, that has....and Ginobli! The team defence of the Spurs is not what it used to be. Just look at their New Orleans series....and now against the Lakers. The best team defence is still Detroit.

SonicYouth34 wrote:Pfft, Celts and the Pistons could beat the Lakers in a 7 game series. KG would dominate Gasol

Regardless it's still frustrating to see the Lakers get Pau without giving up ANYTHING. Honestly, Kwame and Crittenton were not **** to that team. Meanwhile the Celtics had to give up Al, picks, cash, and some other nice pieces to pick up KG. Obviously KG is a better player, but by how much? Pau still has a lot of good years to go, and he's a great fit in the triangle.

Again, SMH at Chris Wallace. Just SMH.

My point exactly...I mean, imagine if we DIDN'T have to part with Al Jefferson in that KG deal....we'd have given up Ratliff's expiring contract/Telfair/Green/Gomes/plus 2 first round picks==which amounts to about the same thing the Lakers gave up for Pau-Hell,maybe more!.....We would be undefeated right now...82-0 plus 10-0 in the playoffs.

Not a big Pau fan.

They'll have to win a championship before I'm convinced.

I'll go as far to say that Chris Wallace was a mole....sent here to Undermine this franchise....Just look back on his record here-just HORRIBLE (unless you're NOT a C's fan)....AND this guy was rewarded with the Memphis job---where he trades their BEST player for a bag of peanuts--to L.A.

Please stop blaming this trade on Chris Wallace.

It's been well documented that owner Michael Heisley decided to send Pau to a better team after 6 1/2 years of suffering in Memphis.

What Heisley accomplished with that trade was:

Reduce 2008 payroll by $2.6 million;

Remove $49.3 million obligation to Pau for NEXT 3 seasons;

Get paid $3 million cash by Lakers;

Get Lakers 2008 and 2010 (top 6 protected) First Round Picks;

Get rights to center Marc Gasol (MVP of Spanish League) and

Get rights to 2007 #18 pick Javaris Crittenton (6' 3.5 inch w/o shoes combo guard)

Plus, they got a two month test drive of Kwame friggin Brown with no downside since they have no obligation to re-sign him.

For Heisley, from a business sense considering his team had the worst record in the NBA,
it's a slam dunk success business wise.

For the Lakers, though, Gasol was the missing piece.

Yeah...he got a lot for Pau.....gimme a break....They gift-wrapped him to the Lakers....L.A. should have AT LEAST given up Odom in that deal....his contract is expiring too I believe.

they had a three decent years with pau as the centerpiece of the team

Max:

Heisley's quote was something like:

"We're in last place with Pau,

we can be in last place without Pau"

which implies "except more profitable."

Odom refused to work out for the Bulls in 1999 when he left college early,

and blew up a trade with Indiana for Jermaine O'Neal by saying that he didn't want to go to Indiana.

Odom, of Brooklyn, N. Y. only seems happy in La La Land, Miami or NY.
Besides, there's no way the Lakers would have given him up, and they didn't need to.

Wake up. This trade was about economics, not talent.
Heisley's still celebrating his victory (for him).

Did you win the series yet?

What sux is that we'll have Doc as the coach again...

The biggest joke is in the mock drafts and stuff that talk about a nucleus of Conley/Gay/Mayo or something, and say they're a big man a way from a nice future. A big man like...Pau Gasol??

There is no defense for the trade from a basketball standpoint. The bottom line is, they had a bad team, with a very good, valuable player with a big salary. And Heisley preferred to just erase the salary rather than doing anything with that asset from a basketball personnel standpoint. Went from a being a bad team with an asset to being a bad team with virtually no assets but a low payroll.

I still have fate in San Antonio winning that series. Please, win that series. No more Kobe. Take your undeserving MVP trophy and go away. Who am I kidding... The Lakers have a free pass into the NBA finals. Why bother playing in the conference finals. You're already in the finals. Spurs might as well forget it. Shame. I want to see the Spurs defend their championship against ideally Boston.